California water board public meeting to address groundwater

Comment

By David Smith@SDNDavidSmith

Siskiyou Daily News, Yreka, CA

By David Smith@SDNDavidSmith

Posted Jan. 17, 2014 at 9:20 AM

By David Smith@SDNDavidSmith
Posted Jan. 17, 2014 at 9:20 AM

With drought on the minds of many across the west, California’s State Water Resources Control Board is meeting next week to discuss subsurface water supplies and its plan for dealing with the underground resource.

A recent press release from the board announced that a public workshop will be held in Sacramento on Jan. 22 to continue discussion around the draft Groundwater Concept Paper released in October.

That paper describes the overall goals of the agency with regard to groundwater management, including the “key elements” of sustainable thresholds for water level drawdown and water quality; monitoring and assessment; governance structures and management practices to prevent impacts; funding to support the governance structures and oversight; and enforcement “in basins where ongoing management efforts are not protecting groundwater.”

According to the press release, the public workshop will expound on those ideas, including discussions of what criteria should be used to determine if local management of groundwater resources is sufficient, whether the state should focus on unmanaged or managed basins, how the connection between groundwater and surface water can be used in determining thresholds and other topics.

A large number of comments were gathered on the draft groundwater concept paper, and one letter, submitted by numerous individuals, calls on the water board to address groundwater overdraft and seasonal drawdown – specifically using the Scott River as a point of reference.

The letter also calls on the board to find the connections between groundwater use and surface flows and then utilize the Public Trust Doctrine to exercise authority over groundwater use that might affect surface water levels.

The entire list of comments, the draft paper and other notices can be found here.

The Jan. 22 meeting will start at 9 a.m. at the Cal/EPA Headquarters building’s Coastal Hearing Room, second floor, at 1001 I Street in Sacramento.